Recent Posts

I had no idea what to expect from the Hartman Rock Garden. Richie Steffen pitched it to me as a garden like no other. I was in Columbus, OH, a few weeks ago for the Cultivate ’15 trade show and had some time to kill. The Cultivate ‘15 is...

Hi friends! Sorry I’ve been so very, very absent–if you’re wondering why, it’s because I wrote a novel called Girl Waits with Gun and that shit is time-consuming. It’s coming out September 1 and I’m going on a book tour that I very much hope puts me in a city...

First, I recommend to you Adrian Higgins’s recent love letter to ferns – Fronds with Benefits: A Guide to Ferns. The article includes his favorites, a tour of the ferns at Chanticleer Garden, and some reasons for their growing popularity – they’re easy, untouched by critters and disease, and...

Recently I came across this article about the fairly new practice of stacking rocks in wild places. Historically, cairns (rocks piled or stacked by humans) have served important purposes, particularly in parts of the world lacking dramatic natural features to use as landmarks. A cairn might mark a trail,...

As Garden Walk Buffalo approaches, I have already been participating in the Open Garden program, helping promote the other sixteen area walks and the special tours, and planning for the out-of-town visitors we will have on the big weekend of the Buffalo walk. GWB has turned into a month-long...

Did you know that this is the International Year of Soils? Me, neither, until I saw an exhibit about the benefits of perennial crops over annual crops, as demonstrated strikingly with plants displayed in all their glory, both above- and below-ground. The plants on display are the work of agricultural...

Rare is the circus that has the extraordinary talent or the vast experience of someone like Janet Draper. This dynamo of the green world is helping to organize a circus of sorts. The 33rd annual symposium of the Perennial Plant Association (PPA) will be held in Baltimore from July 27...

In March we reported that White House floral designer Laura Dowling was mysteriously no longer on the job. Well, today’s Washington Post updates us on the search for her replacement. After months, the legions of applicants have been winnowed down to 25 semi-finalists. The process, similar to that used...

Sometimes even ProfessorRoush tires of his opinions, his interminable rants about disease or weeds or flower color or poor performance that keep him from enjoying the garden. Is it really necessary to constantly pontificate about whether this rose is better than that one, or how one grass is a thug,...

While in Toronto for the Blogger Fling I snagged some really interesting bus-mates for our day-long rides to gardens and events, and one was someone I barely knew but quickly became soulmates with – Linda Lehmusvirta, writer/producer of the Austin-based PBS show Central Texas Gardener. After I got home I...

Garden touring season has given way to what I’m learning to treat as a second dormant period here in the high desert: the extreme heat of midsummer. And how convenient that is, since now there will be time to mull over the many photos of gardens that I’ve accumulated...

Here’s a blog post I wrote for two general-interest blogs, in which I review a fabulous new way to see the sights around the National Mall and illustrate with images of the gardens and landscape memorials along the way. It’s a garden tour with tips from a local gardenblogger’s...

Those lanterns weren’t nearly gay enough. In celebration of Friday’s SCOTUS marriage equality decision, and in solidarity with all of my friends and colleagues who have already availed themselves of this freedom or who are now able to, here is some rainbow/garden imagery I found on Shutterstock. Like Susan,...

GardenRant’s smart and funny co-founder Amy Stewart is sorely missed here, but she’s gone on to bigger things – novels! Her first, “Girl Waits with Gun,” will be out this September, so Amy’s hitting the road. Come on out! One fellow Ranter will definitely be there for the DC...